The present invention relates to utility hauling vehicles and more particularly relates to latches and supports for tailgates of cargo boxes of such vehicles.
Various hauling vehicle tailgate designs are known which include a cargo box having a tailgate forming a rear wall thereof and being mounted for pivoting about a horizontal axis at its bottom end between raised closed and lowered open positions. Typically a latch is provided at each upper corner of the tailgate for retaining the tailgate in its closed position and a flexible element, such as a cable, is provided which extends between each upper corner and the upper rear portion of each side wall of the box for retaining the tailgate in an open position wherein it forms a horizontal extension of the bed or floor of the box. These known tailgate latches and supports include many parts that make them relatively costly and somewhat complicated to assemble. Furthermore, in most cases the latch assemblies are not tight enough to keep the tailgate or latch assemblies from rattling when the vehicle is operated with the tailgate closed.